Habitat for Humanity opens new pop-up shop in Nanaimo to support community projects
All proceeds from both the ReStore and the pop-up go towards Habitat for Humanity community projects throughout the city. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)
Wanting to reduce waste and support housing projects in Nanaimo, Habitat for Humanity Mid-Vancouver Island has opened a pop-up shop offering low cost furniture and clothing.
Located at the Nanaimo North Town Centre, the pop-up opened on July 3rd to a very eager, and large, crowd.
CHLY attended the opening of the pop-up.
From furniture pieces to soccer balls and clothing items for men, women and children, all items sold at the pop-up have been donated.
Sarah Bramley, Interim Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity Mid-Vancouver Island, told CHLY about the store.
“We had the opportunity to partner with the Nanaimo North Town Centre with a pop-up shop,” Bramley said. “So it’s a pilot to see if we could be able to move some extra product and divert waste from the landfill, but also be able to serve a purpose within our community too.”
The pop-up shop is a smaller version of the Habitat ReStore on Mostar Road in Nanaimo. The store has been running for over 30 years and offers low-cost new or gently used furniture, home decor and building supplies.
All proceeds from both the ReStore and the pop-up go towards Habitat for Humanity community projects throughout the city.
Donations come from the community or from stores around the country that are liquidating their clothing.
“So we have a partnership with Habitat for Humanity Canada, where they also help us with procurement. So stores that are either closing, and or are changing their seasonal items, they are able to help us source those and bring them in,” she said. “You'll notice that there's everything from summer and spring clothing all the way to ugly Christmas sweaters, so we literally have a wide variety of clothing in there.”
She said the pop-up is run by a mix of staff and volunteers.
Bramley said all the money made at Habitat ReStores and pop-up helps cover overhead costs such as building rent and wages, and also provides additional funding for community projects.
“We will be renovating a three bedroom, one bathroom home for a new Habitat partner family, and funds from the sales,” she said. “So whether you're buying a couch or you're buying a sweater, proceeds of that will be supporting a local family here in Nanaimo.”
Habitat for Humanity Mid-Vancouver Island has started looking for a family to move into a soon-to-be renovated house in the Nanaimo University District.
One single family will get the opportunity to own the house through Habitat's affordable home-ownership program.
Through this program the homeowner will make monthly mortgage payments geared to approximately 30 per cent of their household income, and partner with Habitat for Humanity and complete 500 home-ownership volunteer hours.
“We haven't built in Nanaimo for quite a few years now, and the opportunity presented itself where we can serve a new family. That's our mission,” Bramley said. “So, whether it's the Restore staff, the administration staff, our board of directors, volunteers, everyone just gets very, very excited to be able to participate and support a family. I think the timing couldn't have worked out better for people to realize that their purchase or donation is directly tied to supporting a local family.”
Jaclyn Chapman is the board chair for Habitat for Humanity Mid-Vancouver Island.
She said they are excited to start the family recruitment process for the home, and they hope to be able to support more families in the region.
She said this new housing opportunity goes along with Habitat for Humanity's mission of building strength, stability, and self-reliance through affordable home-ownership in Nanaimo.
“We're excited for that. Our mission is to serve families and put families into homes, so having this renovation project come up and to be able to start advertising it and family selection it's exciting,” Chapman said. “We're fulfilling our mission.”
Chapman told CHLY putting together the pop-up has been incredible.
“The team has done such a great job putting everything together, from coordinating procurement to setting up the store,” Chapman said. “The hard work that went into that is phenomenal, it's such a beautiful thing to see, and then to see the attendance and the community show up for this, it's amazing.”
As Interim Executive Director, Bramley said the opening of the pop-up has been a success.
“Nanaimo showed up today, and I'm sure it's surrounding Nanaimo as well. We are just so humbled and so proud that not only people want a good deal, but they want to support Habitat,” Bramley said. “There's a lot of ways to be able to donate or give your time, or whatever it may be, and they're choosing to support Habitat right now, and we truly, truly appreciate it.”
The Habitat ReStore Pop-Up is set to run until the end of July at the Nanaimo North Town Centre, or while supplies last.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.